Scripts and Literacy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

   PDF

2. An Introduction to Reading the World’s Scripts

   1. An Introduction to Reading the World’s Scripts

      • Insup Taylor, David R. Olson

      Pages 1-15

3. Optional and Optimal Scripts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Scripts and Writing Systems: A Historical Perspective

      • Albertine Gaur

      Pages 19-30

   3. Optimal Orthographies

      • Henry Rogers

      Pages 31-43

   4. Logographic and Semasiographic Writing Systems: A Critique of Sampson’s Classification

      • J. Marshall Unger, John DeFrancis

      Pages 45-58

   5. The Cree Syllabary and the Writing System Riddle: A Paradigm in Crisis

      • Suzanne McCarthy

      Pages 59-75

   6. Developing Orthographies: The Athapaskan Languages of the Northwest Territories, Canada

      • Keren D. Rice

      Pages 77-94

   7. Orthography and Reading in Kannada: A Dravidian Language

      • P. Prakash, R. Malatesha Joshi

      Pages 95-108

4. Reading Processes for Different Scripts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109

      PDF

   2. How English is Read: Grapheme-Phoneme Regularity and Orthographic Structure in Word Recognition

      • Richard L. Venezky

      Pages 111-129

   3. Getting at the Sound and Meaning of Logographic and Alphabetic Scripts

      • Rumjahn Hoosain

      Pages 131-144

   4. Script Factors that Affect Literacy: Alphabetic vs. Logographic Languages

      • In-Mao Liu

      Pages 145-162

   5. Orthographic and Psycholinguistic Considerations in Developing Literacy in Chinese

      • Che Kan Leong

      Pages 163-183

   6. Differential Processing of Content Words and Function Words: Chinese Characters vs. Phonetic Scripts

      • Insup Taylor, Kwonsaeng Park

      Pages 185-195

5. Early Stage of Learning to Read

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 197-197

      PDF

   2. Teaching Japanese Toddlers to Read Kanji and Kana

      • Miho T. Steinberg

      Pages 199-214

   3. Asymmetries Between Reading and Writing for Japanese Children

      • Jun Yamada

      Pages 215-230

   4. Reading Disabilities in Japan: Implications from the Study of Hemisphere Functioning

      • Takeshi Hatta, Takehiko Hirose

      Pages 231-246

   5. Writing Systems and Acquisition of Reading in American, Chinese, and Japanese First-Graders

      • Shin-Ying Lee, David H. Uttal, Chuansheng Chen

      Pages 247-263

Literacy is a concern of all nations of the world, whether they be classified as developed or undeveloped. A person must be able to read and write in order to function adequately in society, and reading and writing require a script. But what kinds of scripts are in use today, and how do they influence the acquisition, use and spread of literacy? Scripts and Literacy is the first book to systematically explore how the nature of a script affects how it is read and how one learns to read and write it. It reveals the similarities underlying the world's scripts and the features that distinguish how they are read.
Scholars from different parts of the world describe several different scripts, e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian Amerindian -- and how they are learned. Research data and theories are presented.
This book should be of primary interest to educators and researchers in reading and writing around the world.

• English
• cognition
• first language
• second language

• The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, Canada

  Insup Taylor

• The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada

  David R. Olson

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